The Honey Bee Network documents its work focusing on grassroots innovations in India. It aims to give identity, voice, visibility and viability to traditional knowledge holders. It works to connect resource-rich communities with those facing resource scarcity. It highlights examples of natural resource management, sharing values, urban common spaces, traditional foods, and innovations by children and communities. The Network's goal is to leverage creativity, compassion, communication and collaboration for inclusive development.

1. Honey
Bee
Network
Landscapes of Love, Sharing and Co-Creation
Anil K Gupta, Marianne Esders, Chetan Patel, Unni Nair, R. Baskaran
Honey Bee Network, SRISTI & IIMA

2. Honey
Bee
Network
Ladakh
Why wouldn’t many architects learn from the communities
which have tried to integrate nature?

3. Honey
Bee
Network
Bowing before nature- Ahmedabad, Gujarat
In Ahmedabad, we have sacred trees being worshipped by the people
who tie a fragile thread around a strong trunk of tree seeking solace, safety and strength.

4. Honey
Bee
Network
Fragile thread, strong trunk, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

5. Honey
Bee
Network
Bonds of reverence - Ahmedabad, Gujarat

6. Honey
Bee
Network
Fragility is the foundation of love.
Without being vulnerable, we are seldom able to access feelings
in our own inner recess.
Authenticity,
so fundamental to make a breakthrough,
requires a little schizophrenia
between the inner and the outer of our being.
The built environment, urban landscape, narrow corridors,
common spaces and intertwining of nature and human
habitations call in question our authenticity.

7. Honey
Bee
Network
Corridors of intimacy.
One of the many “secret” shortcuts in Ahmedabad’s old part of the city.

8. The focus of the Honey Bee Network has been primarily
rural, but for the last few years, effort has been made to
look at urban common property management, innovations,
institutions and educational networks to leverage their
resourcefulness while connecting them with material
resource inadequacies of the rural areas.

9. Honey
Bee
Network
Honey
Bee
Network
founded
in
1987-­‐1988
A
nameless,
faceless
innovator
or
tradi>onal
knowledge
holder
comes
into
contact
with
the
Network
and
gets
an
iden>ty,
voice,
visibility
and
viability
of
its
sustainable
vision
.

10. Honey
Bee
Network
Purulia, West Bengal
The local people believe that the breeze triggered by the fluttering of
the wings of the pigeons is very healthy for the people living there.

11. Honey
Bee
Network
In Gujarat, we have found hundreds of villages and also
some urban settlements having bird feeding platforms.
Many communities in dry regions brought their values of
animal care to the urban settlements.
The regions prone to drought and thus having periodic
scarcity of grains have invariably been found to have more
places for feeding birds than the more developed regions.
The less you have,
the more you share.
And not just with human beings but also with the nonhuman sentient beings.

12. Honey
Bee
Network
Learning to share - Chabutra, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

13. Honey
Bee
Network
Chabutra, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

14. Honey
Bee
Network
Chabutra, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

15. Honey
Bee
Network
Shared spaces, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

16. Honey
Bee
Network
I take students for an urban walk to
observe, listen, learn
and share the spirit
with roadside vendors, fabricators, service providers and
children.
I also encourage students to join a Shodhyatra
– learning walk –
in the Himalayas.

17. Honey
Bee
Network

18. Honey
Bee
Network
Learning on the move.

19. Honey
Bee
Network
At 15.000 feet, Leh, Ladakh
We learn from four teachers: from within, among peers, from nature and from common people.

20. Honey
Bee
Network
Three pillars of sustainability – technology, institutions, culture - Cherapunji, Megalaya
The double decker bridge grown from tree roots drawn from the two sides of the river in
Cherapunji, Megalaya is an ultimate testimony of sustainability, renewability and collective action.
If people did not cooperate, the technology would not work.
Its institutional context provides continuity.

21. Honey
Bee
Network
Creating public open source standards of excellence.

22. Honey
Bee
Network
AnantNag., Jammu & Kashmir
Recognising the traditions of excellence – an eye for detail!
Leadership is to look for excellence in every day life, all around, even on roadsides.

23. Honey
Bee
Network
Creativity abound.
Saidullah developed an amphibious bicycle.
http://www.youtube.com/user/hbncon

24. Honey
Bee
Network
There is no place in the world,
which does not have some institutions.
The challenge is to discover them and build upon them.
Our job is not to make people innovative.
Our challenge is to build upon
the creative and innovative spirit
That every child is born with.
In the process of growing up, we cover this spirit with so many layers of
habits and etiquettes that even we do not know that we have this capability.
Unfolding the creative potential of society is
uncovering the nature within
so that resonance with the nature outside can be forged.

25. Honey
Bee
Network
Creepers finding their way, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Nature is not only crafting spaces of conservation. It is grafting the values of conservation.

26. Honey
Bee
Network
Autopoiesis at grassroots for inclusive development. crea%vity,
compassion,
communica%on
and
collabora%on

27. Honey
Bee
Network
During the period of economic transition
from material to knowledge-based economy,
the education systems became far more fragmented,
quantitative in their treatment of subjects
and much more divorced from real life conditions.
Countability or measurability became important.
Any thing that could not be measured,
was considered not worth the effort.
A change not monitored, is a change not desired.
Variance was sought to be explained
only by what was measured.

28. Honey
Bee
Network
IGNITE
Recognising creativity of children and nurturing their dreams.
Thank God, children are much less patient with inertia than we are.

29. Honey
Bee
Network
Inverted Model of Innovation
Children invent, engineers and designers fabricate, companies deliver.
Harnessing the creative energy of individuals, communities of children, students, farmers artisans, etc.

30. Honey
Bee
Network
Wei Zhi Chuan (Class 10) started playing ping pong at the age of six.
After a lot of practice in the day, his shoes became wet due to seat and left an uncomfortable feeling.
He thought of inventing a “bacterial shoe hanging machine”.
When the shoes are put on hooks in the shoe hanging machine, ultra violet rays and hot air start freshening the shoe
and the dampness and odour are removed leaving the shoes fresh.

31. Honey
Bee
Network
Nisha Chaube from NOIDA invented a bag with a folding seat.

32. Honey
Bee
Network
Arnab Chakraborty, Class 12, from Kolkatta invented a copedal for bicycle rickshaws.

33. Honey
Bee
Network
Mohammed Usman Hanif Patel, Class 2, from Jalgaon, Maharashtra invented a windmill powered fan.

34. Honey
Bee
Network
Shanu Sharma, Vardan, IITK developed a manual stair climbing wheel chair.
www.techpedia.in

35. Honey
Bee
Network
Image, Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis
for people with hearing and speaking disabilities.
Saurabh Saket and Rahul Ranjan from Bhutta College of Engineering & Technology, Ludhiana.
www.techpedia.in

36. Honey
Bee
Network
SATTVIK [pure]
Traditional Food Festival

37. Honey
Bee
Network
Trust, reciprocity and third part
External regulation
commoditization of
resources, stored,
Social capital
Natural
capital
sold, exchanged,
controlled
Intellectual
capital
sanctions
Intellectual property
( that part of ic from the
commercial applications of which,
one can exclude others for a given
period of time)
Ethical Capital
(internal regulations)
Source: Gupta, 2001

38. Honey
Bee
Network
Let parrots have their way -, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
How to measure the look and feel of parrot feeding hangers in a balcony.

39. Honey
Bee
Network
Ranchhodbhai, - sanctuary of love - Ahmedabad, Gujarat
How to measure the feeling that motivates a person to collect food and milk to feed the dogs?

40. Honey
Bee
Network
How many people have been misled by the Maslowian philosophy
to assume that one could aspire for higher order goals only after meeting basic needs.
How wrong.
A creative soul,
even if not assured of the next bread,
would not abandon pursuit of enlightenment.
How could she … would not breath then become burden?

41. Honey
Bee
Network
Bhabi Mahato – a speaking canvas, Purulia, West Bengal
Almost in every Shodhyatra,
we discover unique nuances of cultural expressions of different coping strategies.

42. Honey
Bee
Network
Bhabi Mahato – a speaking canvas, Purulia, West Bengal

43. Honey
Bee
Network
Daring colours - Jam Singh Jhiri’s, Nandor, Madhya Pradesh
A wall full of colour can make any one passing by
stop and pause, reflect and reposition one’s compass of creativity.

44. Honey
Bee
Network
There are deep-rooted institutional structures,
which have created habits of thought and action.
One cannot bring about change
without identifying these habits
and stressing the need to overcome them.
Urban spaces have ignored commons at the cost
of individual privileges.
Cycle and pedestrian lanes are missing in India
but about 25 per cent growth of the auto sector during the last decade
has mesmerised growth planners about dispensability
of what a common person needs:
A little space to walk, a safe lane for a child to go to school.

45. Honey
Bee
Network
Crowded street, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

46. Honey
Bee
Network
The urban areas have become the suction pumps for the rural talent.
With the increasing rate of urbanisation,
migration of youth is inevitable.
The more accomplished a rural youth is,
the higher is the chance that he would not stay in a village.
Unless we create sufficiently inclusive opportunities for them,
the scope for experimentation and innovation may come down.
Distributed facilities for
in-situ incubation of ideas are necessary.
The concept of incubation itself needs to undergo a shift.
One may need a sanctuary model.
Where do street children figure in our vision of order and beauty?

47. Honey
Bee
Network
Pressure cooker based coffee maker - frugal innovation by Mohammed Rozadeen, Bihar

48. Honey
Bee
Network
Urban renewal and rejuvenation requires synergy among
technology, institution, culture and educational processes.
People who are disadvantaged in terms of material resources,
invariably leverage the resources in which they are rich,
i.e., knowledge, values, and institutional networks.
Many of them don’t share their ideas with outsiders. But some do.
A frugal, flexible, friendly innovation conveys
what grassroots innovation is all about.

49. Honey
Bee
Network
Rider Induced bicycle
Mr. Kanak Das, Assam
Bamboo bicycle
Mr. Dodhi Pathak, Assam
Bicycle based portable Pump
Mr. Nasiruddin Gayen, WB
Bicycle based sprayer
Mr. Mansukhbhai Jagani, Gujarat
Bicycle with gear
Mr. Jayanti J Patel,Gujarat
Bicycle operated pump
Mr. Vikram Rathore, AP
Amphibious Bicycle
Mohd. Saidullah, Bihar
Bicycle based mobile spray pump
Subhas Vasantrao Jagtap, Maharastra
Multipurpose Bicycle
Md. Kamruddin, Rajasthan

50. Honey
Bee
Network
blending
passion, purpose, persistence, performance
through
platforms
SRISTI, GIAN, NIF, Techpedia.in
creating
open source multimedia multi-language content
for children, cultural creativity and innovations in governance

51. Honey
Bee
Network
Sustainable alternatives will require collective action
without squeezing space for individual entrepreneurial and empathetic creativity.
The paradox of individual aspirations being met through collective consent can be resolved
through creation of new meeting ground between formal and informal sector.
Open innovation platforms are a means in this direction.
Landscapes of love require
lighthouses of a shared spirit.
Then the waves of collaboration will deliver various boats to their sought out shores.
Urban regions can aggregate intimate spaces through a collaborative and creative spirit for an
inclusive future.

52. Honey
Bee
Network
in
Inclusive
Trade-­‐offs
evelopment
D
accuracy
be
Should
traded
off
with
Should
affordability?
design overtake durability?

53. Honey
Bee
Network
Your Time Club
First meeting of people who had all the time during 2009 economic crisis, redundancy and lay off.
Prayas.in, Bangalore

54. Honey
Bee
Network
Creativity counts.
Knowledge matters.
Incentives inspire.
Innovations transform.

55. Honey
Bee
Network
“Minds on the margin are not marginal minds.”
The mind to market journey needs new meanings.

56. Honey
Bee
Network
“Minds on the margin are not marginal minds.”
Without risk capital for small innovations,
social venture funds for revitalising urban spaces,
new opportunities for generating jobs and expanding economic, social and ethical markets
may not arise.

57. Honey
Bee
Network
* Open Innovation Platforms.
* Social Open Innovation Funds to create public goods.
* Pooling of IP and open source technologies for commercial uptake.
* Public pool of private IP acquired through funds – GTIAF.
* Network of community fab labs for designing local solutions.
* Innovation Clubs to search, spread, sense and celebrate innovations.
What next …

58. Honey
Bee
Network
Rewarding ingenious creativity and innovation.
Join the Honey Bee Network!
anilgb@gmail.com
sristi100@gmail.com

59. Honey Bee Network